


a few substantial years of solitude

by desdemonalore



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Apocalypse, Daddy Issues, End of the World, Father Figures, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 20:02:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29863338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/desdemonalore/pseuds/desdemonalore
Summary: you think daddy would be here by now, don't you? it's lonely and scary without him.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Peter Parker/Tony Stark, Quentin Beck & Peter Parker
Comments: 12
Kudos: 23





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> sorry this sucks lol. i wrote it at like 3 am. if people like this I'll write a part two.

there wasn't much left of new york. purple trees and a black sky, and a thousand crumbling buildings. inside one, though, there was peter. 

peter was terminally seven. he would have turned eight by now, but they lost track of time. he didn't know the month, or even the year. it felt like forever, just him and his dad, talking and playing and drawing and reading.

on this particular day, peter and daddy were camped out on the lumpy bed. it was too uncomfortable to sleep in, but made a fine chair. 

"whatcha drawin?" peter asked, peeking over his daddy's arms. the picture didn't make a lot of sense. it was a collection of big shapes and labels he couldn't read. 

"a map, baby," daddy explained simply. peter sat back. 

"like in dora?" 

that earned him a warm chuckle which made his heart flutter with joy. he wouldn't trade anything for this. just him and daddy, sitting on the bed and talking. he hated school, he hated his mom-- he hated everything about before. 

"exactly! just like in dora. and what's the map do in dora?" daddy asked, and peter's brain blanked. 

it'd been so long since he'd watched it, or anything else for that matter. he did miss that a little, maybe. watching grown up tv shows he had to promise not to tell mom about or she'd get mad.

"um," peter contemplated. "the fox would steal it?" 

daddy clicked his tongue. "sorta, baby, but maps tell you where to go. see, this right here, is where we are." daddy pointed to a cartoon house. it looked nothing like their place-- there was four windows and a door and a roof. daddy labelled it home. 

peter nodded. 

"and this is where the map ends." he pointed to an even bigger block, this one with no windows or roofs or doors. not much of anything, really, just a big rectangle. it was labelled camp. 

"why are you making a map?" peter asked skeptically. he had no interest in moving. besides, he had all his stuffed animals-- all of what's left of them, anyway-- here. all the mangled, melted barbie dolls and all their matching kens. 

"we're gonna go," daddy said. 

"but--"

"peter, it's just temporary. i promise," daddy promised. 

it took a few days, but soon they hit the road. peter was only allowed three stuffed animals and toys (in all) so he brought the obvious ones, his favorite barbie, may the puppy, and balzac the unicorn. 

daddy reassured him everything outside was fine, but peter couldn't help but wonder if that was true. the air was heavy and smelled of chemicals. it was more suffocating to breathe than to hold his breath. the world was flat and demolished. all the other homes in their complex were nothing but rocks and wooden boards now. the trees were leafless, and their trunks were such a dark brown they were purple. the sky was grey and cloudless. 

he wanted to hold daddy's hand, but both were occupied. 

it didn't take long before they reached their first milestone. his father smiled. "that, my baby, used to be the stark's estate. nothing more than a heap of shit-- I mean, stuff now. totally worthless." 

they walked on. the sky went from grey to black gradually, and soon it was impossible to see a thing. daddy lit a lighter up. the flame sprung to life within a few tries. 

it illuminated daddy's face in a way peter didn't like. it shadowed the hollowness of his cheeks, the whiteness of his skin, the old tiredness in his eyes. 

they walked in the dark until they found the lip of a cave. "don't make a noise," daddy said. 

"okay," peter replied, closing his eyes. "I won't." 

there was no sun. there hadn't been a sun for some time. 

so peter asked about it. "daddy, what happened to the sun?" 

daddy was quiet for a second, but answered, "they blew out the flame." 

and peter nodded, but he didn't know what it meant. 

"if I'd had known they'd do it," daddy began again, "I would have plucked it out of the sky and made it into a necklace just for you." 

"wouldn't that burn your hands?" peter asked. 

daddy ignored him. "there's a lot of stuff I wish I'd known, a lot of stuff i wish I'd done. maybe you won't grow up like I did. but I'm gonna raise you the best I can." 

peter nodded at the sentiment, only half understanding. 

"daddy!" peter shouted gleefully, a pep in his step. 

"what?" daddy asked, trailing behind slowly. the sky was growing darker. 

"let's play I spy!" the boy sang. "I'll go first. i spy... something white." 

"hmm," daddy looked around. "me?" 

"nuh-huh, you're tan," Peter dismissed shaking his head. his father was hardly tan anymore.

the landscape was all sorts of colors, none of which looked natural (excluding the dirt, grassless and compact) reds and purples and neon greens and anything that lay between. but not a lot of white. 

"what is it Peter?" daddy asked, until the dusty air in front of him cleared. he stopped in his tracks as his heart broke. 

peter giggled as he climbed a rack of monstrously large, and perfectly pale ribs.

it took two days until they finally met another living creature. a huge lupine beast covered in teeth. it's hindlegs, it's back, it's mouth dripping with fresh blue blood-- all constructed with hundreds of rows of pencil thick, needle sharp teeth. 

peter approached it carelessly, regardless of growls. "hiya dere puppy," he addressed it in his sweet baby voice. daddy approached carefully, and when the dog began to launch, he threw himself into Peter first. 

he shoved the map into his boy's balled up hands and threw their backpacks in the direction of the bunker. 

"go, peter. go on without daddy,” daddy said as a sheepish, regretful smile steals half of his face. “i’ll catch up with you later. but i won’t be able to find you if you don’t get to the bunker. I love you, Peter.”

As soon as Daddy finished, the monster roared again. “I love you too,” Peter screamed as the big dog rushed towards them. He grabbed the two bags and ran and ran until his lungs hurt. Then he checked the map, and found his way back on course. 

At night, he curled into the inside of a half melted tire. He didn’t wake up until noon, and then he began the journey home. 

It took him two days, but the sky was nearly completely ashen as he happened upon the ajar door. it was plastered in stickers peter couldn't read. hesitantly, he approached, he opened the door further, turned on his lantern. 

twenty or so skeletons laid around the room. two on a table playing checkers, many strewn across the floor. multiple weren't even in the shape of a skeleton anymore. just mangled heaps of chewed on bones.

the first step of moving in was creating cards. he still had half a cartage of printer paper, so he split some in half and wrote everyone get well cards on the inside. 

then, he needed a friend. he propped up a skeleton in a ripped dress (that was probably once pale pink, but due to all the dirt and dust was a pale grey) and used his marker to give her lips and eyelashes and eyebrows. he did that with a few skeletons, but the marker ink was getting low. 

there wasn't much to do. he had one book, a thick, two hundred page illustrated novel centering around strawberry shortcake's adventures. but he wasn't interested in reading now. he spent almost all day speaking to his newfound buddies and sleeping and occasionally drawing on the walls. 

and that's what he did for nearly a decade.


	2. daddy's second coming

tony's radio had urged him towards a government camp for several months until it broke. although that was over five years ago, he just happened upon it. the door was shut, but not locked. he felt that was promising. he opened the door and was greeted with the smiling faces of two dozen skeletons. 

that and a teenage boy playing checkers with human remains.

"hello?" he shouted, and the boy's head snapped up faster than a crack of lightning. 

"hi," he whispered, hardly audible, "daddy." 

it'd been a long time since someone called him that. he didn't know what to say. 

"you're here, you're finally here!" the kid shouted, and hopped off his seat. he bolted toward the door and held tony so tight he feared he'd pop.

tony stroked his back awkwardly. "I'm not your daddy." 

"what do you mean?" the kid questioned, pulling away and looking up at tony with the biggest brown doe eyes he'd ever seen. it took everything inside of him to further deny this poor battered boy. 

"what's your name?" tony asked. 

"peter… and what's yours?" 

"tony," tony said, solemnly. "peter, your daddy must have died." 

he could see the ripped hurt that crossed the boy's face. it's amazing, what the brain will do to protect the people you love. he must have knew, deep down, if his father was gone for that long, he'd been dead. but nonetheless, he persisted with the idea he wasn't. 

peter delicately lifted a skeleton with a crude, faded face off of a chair and sat him on the ground.

"I'm sorry, princess," he said, before sitting down. 

tony followed suit. he listened as peter told him about his dad. "he was tall and had a big beard. i can't remember any of the details…. i haven't seen him in so long that I can't .. I can't remember his face." 

it didn't take further explanation before peter broke into tears. tony took the boy's hand in his and mumbled softly, "I lost my daughter and my wife, too." 

he watched the boy sob, the way it took the entirety of his body out with him. he stroked his hand softly. "daddy's here for you," he mumbled, and the boy looked up at him, with big, hopeful eyes. "daddy's got you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tony and peter start dating in my vision. should I write a sequel or make it a series? lemme know!!!! all feedback welcomed.


End file.
